Prague Spring (2010)

We finally posted pictures!

We woke up this morning completely amazed and happy to find blues skies and sunshine as far as the eye could see. We got a little bit of a late start because we opted to sleep in, but luckily Bo-Bagel serves breakfast all day! After consuming some more hash browns and some amazing blueberry pancakes, we went to the Spanish Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. Rach got there just in time yesterday for them to shut the doors in her face so we went back together. It was amazing! The architecture is Moorish in design and the inside is pretty indescribable. Check out the photos and enjoy. It's advertised as the most beautiful synagogue in Europe. We beg to differ. It's the most beautiful synagogue in the world! As we exited the Spanish Synagogue, we were checking out some posters for a concert series they hold there a couple of times a week. It was 'The Best of World Musicals and Famous Jewish Songs." How could we resist?! We bought tickets and we'll describe it more in depth a little later in this post.

After checking out the Spanish Synagogue, we'd missed the guided castle tour for the day, so we decided to have our own tour of Prague Castle. It's pretty amazing. We walked there across the Charles Bridge, which is a famous bridge here in Prague. It was built during the rein of King Charles IV. The bridge is lined with statues on either side of different saints.

The statue of John of Nepomuk is particularly popular for tourists. There are two plaques on either side. One you rub for good luck in life, the other you rub for good luck in the fertility department or death, according to some stories. Funny, the folks who didn't know this kept rubbing the wrong side! We were watching for spontaneous baby bumps or heart attacks. No dice.

In addition to the statues, the bridge is lined with street vendors selling art, jewelry and other touristy things. Once on the other side of the bridge, we started to make the great big trek up the hill toward the Prague Castle. About halfway through, we decided it was time for a break and popped into a little pastry shop where we re-hydrated and shared a slice of cheesecake. We then continued the trek up the hill and found ourselves looking at the most incredible view of the Prague skyline.

We made our way into the castle grounds and made it into Saint Vitus Cathedral just before they closed the doors. Boy, are we glad we made it inside! The sun was hitting its main rose window just right so that the floor and walls were painted with the most brilliant shades of purple, pink and yellow. We had learned on our tour yesterday that Saint Vitus isn't just any ol' saint - he protects against lighting strikes and animal attacks and is the patron saint of epileptics. We like him! The cathedral, like the synagogue we had visited earlier, is just indescribable at how beautiful it is. We now understand why Prague is called "The Golden City" - because every building, interior and exterior, is absolutely exquisite!

After checking out the cathedral, we walked around outside, checking out different shops and views. We then found another amazing view of Prague and took some more pictures. We then remembered that Rachael's friends, Meredith and Phil, will be visiting Prague in August. Rachael had joked about leaving them a little treasure hunt for their visit. Rachael decided that it was no longer a laughing matter, and that we really should make a little treasure hunt for them! So off we went to find a cool and safe place to leave a treasure for Mer and Phil. We found the perfect spot, a sitting area in the vineyard that over looks the entire city. It's a pretty sweet view and hopefully, a safe place to leave a lil' treasure for the next 5 months. We'll be emailing them some more specific directions on how to find it but here are some pics of us hiding it and the fantastic view you have from up there:

We then headed back down the hill and back towards the Jewish Quarter to go see the concert in the Spanish Synagogue. The seating that had been roped off earlier was now open and you could hear the sounds of a small orchestra tuning up. The orchestra then made their way to the bimah (the platform or "stage" where the Jewish services are conducted from). It was an hour long concert that consisted mostly of show tunes written by Jewish composers. We love us some show tunes! The 6-piece orchestra played tunes from West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Porgy and Bess as well as the songs Mack the Knife, Rhapsody in Blue, and Cheek to Cheek. They also played some traditional Jewish tunes such as Hevenu Shalom Alechem, Lach Jerusalem, and Hava nagila. It was so cool to be in what has got to be the most beautiful Synagogue in the world and listen to some of our favorite songs. The experience definitely made it's way into the top 10 best things we've done on this trip. After the concert, we decided it was time to grab some grub so we made our way to the Old Town Square where the Easter festival was going on and we each got ourselves a hot dog. We walked around some more and all of those shiny things in the shop windows finally hypnotized Rachael. We made our way into the crystal shop that Katie had been in the previous day. Rachael got her self a shnazzy new necklace and Katie got herself a cool plate. Not gonna lie - we're lovin' the exchange rate here!

After shopping, we decided to check out the Choco Cafe, a restaurant the owner of our hostel had told us about. He said they have the best hot chocolate ever and we gotta check it out. So we headed over there to find that it had closed only 15 minutes ago. Waaah waaah. Maybe we'll make it back over there tomorrow. We then started to make our way back to the Old Town Square when we found an ice cream shop. We already had our sweet tooths itching for that hot chocolate, it just had to be satisfied somehow! We got us some ice cream and started heading back toward the hostel. We have a long day tomorrow. We have to check out of our hostel by 10am, check and see how much it will cost to send a box back home to mail some of our presents and warmer clothes, perhaps do some more shopping and then book a night train to Switzerland! If we can grab a seat, we hope to grab a night train from Prague to Zurich, Switzerland for tomorrow. We will get into Zurich on Wednesday morning and tour around for the day then that night head to Lugano to check out Lake Como. Katie's dream honeymoon destination is Lake Como, so we have to go check out the sites and make sure it's okay. Later this week we'll head to Milan, Venice and then we'll be in Florence in time to eat some matzah ball soup at a Passover Seder.

So that means a whole lotta train rides over the next couple of days (woo hoo!). That also means you get a whole lotta silly blog posts the next time we get internet so keep checkin!

Peace ninjas!

XOXO K&R